| Paper ID | PWP-CCPR-2005-048 |
| Authors: | Musick, Kelly; Seltzer, Judith A.; Schwartz, Christine R. |
| Title: | Neighborhood Norms and Substance Use Among Teens |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Abstract: | This paper uses new data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS) to examine how norms shape teenagers' substance use. Specifically, it uses multilevel models to describe the effects of adult neighbors' smoking, drinking, and marijuana use and their beliefs about these behaviors, which we treat as norms, on teenagers' substance use, taking account of parents' attitudes and behavior and other family-level characteristics. We investigate how the association between neighborhood attitudes and teen behavior depends on: (1) consensus in neighbors' substance use and disapproval of substance use; (2) the willingness and ability of neighbors to enforce norms, for instance, by monitoring teens' activities; and (3) the degree to which teens are exposed to their neighbors. We find little effect of neighborhood norms on teen substance use, regardless of how we condition the effects. We discuss possible explanations and implications in our concluding section. |
| Citation: | K. Musick, J. A. Seltzer, and C. R. Schwartz. “Neighborhood Norms and Substance Use among Teens.” Social Science Research, in press. |
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| Auxiliary Files: | : Technical Appendix.pdf :
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